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Monday, 26 June 2017

The Dark Mile (a film review)

Clare (Deirdre Mullins) and Louise (Rebecca Calder) are a couple recovering from traumatic personal experiences, who book a sailing trip on the Caledonian Canal in Scotland to recover from their trauma and to try to repair their fractured relationship.

The stunning Highland scenery promises an idyllic time for them but it soon proves to be otherwise. They find themselves followed by a mysterious black barge crewed by very stange, sinister seeming people. Whenever they disembark from the boat they are confronted by a Scotland populated by disfunctional, uncommunicative weirdos. Even Sheila Hancock's seemingly well meaning old woman is so odd as to surely not be trusted. Voodoo dolls and occult windchimes that turn up in odd places add to the sense of unease and foreboding, as do the darkening skies and ample rain.

Louise and Claire are thoroughly modern to the point that they are more interested in whether they have wifi than making sure they have an adequate first aid kit on board the boat. They soon regret this.

I'm easily scared by films, but this didn't really scare me, even though it's billed as a tense psychological horror-thriller. I found myself looking at the occult windchimes and thinking 'oh that would be an interesting craft project!' rather than finding them particularly sinister.

I'm pretty certain Visit Scotland won't be using this film in any of their publicity. Note to anyone reading this outside Scotland, his film does not accurately represent Scottish people (though it does accurately represent our scenery and weather).

3 comments:

Hi Rabbits Guy - One of the great things about the festival is that it gives us the chance to see some strange films - ie non-mainstream films that are unlikely to get wide distribution into cinemas. Dark Mile is the only film so far at the festival this year that I've not enjoyed.